Ultimate Team is still the best mode for FIFA newcomers

Several new teams have been included to this year and perhaps one of the most anticipated innovations, the ability to play with feminine international teams. Although Electronic Arts specifies that many elements were added to the career mode, also in this year the career mode seems to be vastly uninteresting and boring for franchise players. Additions have been made and they can be seen see but I can not help noticing that these additions were made to attract gamers and do not provide serious improvements. For example, if you choose to be the keeper in the Pro Player Career mode and will wish to train in the new training system you’ll discover that there are not enough training options to train your players and to fill all slots with what you need to work out. Thus, if you want to take advantages of the slots you will have to train things that do not matter for you.

The 23rd annual instalment of the EA Sports soccer simulation is here and has all the new kits, new squads, new players and new features that lovers of the beautiful game crave. All the modes you expect and want are included - FIFA Ultimate Team (with the addition of Draft Mode to help you create a better team quicker), Career and Online - and are as great as ever. One slightly frustrating way a chance can present itself is by goalkeepers flapping at crosses, leaving an easy tap-in. For example, too often do one of my players autonomously sprint to try and keep a ball in play, even if it was last touched by an opponent's foot. And they often ignore my commands when I try to pull them back using the stick.

Check out the example in the video below — an opposing attacker crosses the ball towards the goal, but as you can see from the yellow X, it's going out of play, which would result in a goal kick for me. But instead of letting the ball go out of play, Jones rabidly sprints towards the ball to head it out even more than it already is. In the process, he becomes the last one to touch the ball, and the opposition end up with an opponent's threatening corner kick. Instead, I'm here to help casual fans and newbies who have never picked up a soccer game before, or who wait several years or more between purchasing soccer games, determine whether or not FIFA 16 is a fun game and worth buying. Now that I've hopefully made it clear as to the focus of the review, let's get into it.

Two other specific points about defending are worth mentioning because they address things that I found particularly excruciating in FIFA 15 and would like to celebrate the end of. Defenders have been given a new suite of animations for challenging for the ball in mid-air, which sounds incidental but looks to solve the ludicrous potency of looped passes out to the wings when, all too often, a fullback would be in a seemingly good position to win the bouncing ball but (one of those comic inelegancies) simply hadn’t been given the animations making him capable of such a challenge. This is one of the most enjoyable parts, whenever you're going to use the Counter-Top try the driven ground pass instead of the Y button on the XBOX and Triangle on the PlayStation. Keep marking his feet and when you hit their feet they have a great first touch provided they take a hit on the goal is powerful. Be aware of players who excel in these situations. Enjoy.

Trade offers were a fun part of FIFA 14, giving players the option to propose swaps for cards rather than spending coins. Inevitably, coin sellers found a way to abuse the system so it was removed this year, but perhaps it’s time to bring it back? They’re a different way of doing your Harry Redknapp style dealings in the transfer market and add a new element to the trading side of Ultimate Team. It’s also a fun way to play with friends, whether you’re swapping cards like 90s kids in a playground or doing a pink slips game where the loser must hand over the goods. If EA are worried the system will be exploited again, they could maybe restrict it slightly, only allowing players in the same price ranges to be swapped. That way you aren’t going to be able to trade your 49 rated bronze keeper with coin sellers for a string of legends to make major profit.

Ultimate Team is still the best mode for FIFA newcomers, of which there are many in North America. Untethered from the expectations that ride with managing a name-brand team like Réal Madrid or Chelsea, I focused purely on the players I had and how to win with them and make them better. I formed intensely loyal relationships with my top performers. My new favorite is Nolan Roux, just a 75-rated striker for Saint-étienne in France's Ligue 1, but a guy who is always at the vanguard of my attack, slamming home a pass for a timely score. Without FIFA Ultimate Team, I probably wouldn't know or care anything about him.